


The Black Cat

by Palefire73



Series: Prisoners. The Chronicles of Loki and Erika [4]
Category: Loki - Fandom, Norse Gods - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Realilty, Asgard, F/M, Loki - Freeform, Love, Marvel - Freeform, Mystery, Prisoners, Romance, norse gods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 10:37:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11034447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palefire73/pseuds/Palefire73
Summary: Erika is starting to feel at home, but encounters a puzzle in the form of a cat...





	The Black Cat

The first week of her time at the idyllic farm in the manufactured reality serving as Loki’s prison flew by for Erika. The first morning, she had awoken at dawn and had needed a moment to orient herself and remember just where she was. The room in which she had slept was so faithfully reproduced towards the original, she had thought for just a second that she was back in her own room in her parent’s house and that all of this had simply been a dream – that her discovery of Loki in the King’s suite and the subsequent adventures she had experienced had been nothing more than an amazing dream… or nightmare. However, there was something not quite the same about the quality of the light coming in through the window and slow realisation had come over her, as it often does when one has just woken up; she was not at her parent’s house, she was at the farm house in the Southlands of The Vision’s alternate reality. Scrubbing the sleep from her eyes with the heels of her hands, Erika got up and padded over to the large window recessed in a peaked part of the ceiling and opened the curtains to reveal the view. It was a picturesque landscape and one that she hoped she would never tire of looking at, especially since she was destined to live for a very, very long time.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It was now about ten days or so since she had first arrived and Erika felt that she was settling in and that she was definitely starting to feel at home. She had awoken at dawn again – some things were ingrained in her, such as an early rise – and she got up to see what the day would bring. The house was completely silent and Erika’s stomach was about the only thing making its presence known through the rumblings of hunger, so she wandered out onto the large landing and made her way downstairs to bake the bread which had been proving in the pantry overnight. This was one of the small pleasures of living here; the simple tasks of preparing food, tending flower beds and vegetable plots, feeding the horses and many other such things were a tonic after the often traumatic events she had gone through back in the real Asgard. She would even go so far as to say that this was currently feeling like a long overdue holiday at the moment, so relaxed did she feel and she was quite sure that Loki felt the same way too. Shaping the dough into nice cobs and plaits, she began to hum a lilting melody as she added some decoration in the form of various edible seeds and a sprinkling here and there of cheese for savoury muffins or cinnamon for sweet rolls. Outside, an Asgardian Cockerel crowed a welcome to the day and the sun began to peek above the far off horizon to begin the path across the sky towards dusk.

 

A small sound captured Erika’s attention and she looked down towards her feet to see a cat starting to wind around her legs, brushing up against her and blinking its bright green eyes at her. It was the black cat she had seen curled up on a chair when she had arrived here over a week ago and it surprised her; she had not given it any thought because she had not seen it since then.

 

“Where have you been?” She murmured, and brushed off her hands on her apron before crouching down to greet the graceful feline. Although fine-boned, it was a male and it was now purring loudly as it rubbed its face against her hand and accepted her attention. “You are a friendly one!” Erika laughed as it stood up on its hind legs and sniffed inquisitively at her face, its loud purrs continuing. The young maid stood up carefully, so as not to stand on the cat and took the baking tray over to the huge stove, where she slid it into the wood fired oven, which had been warming up while she had shaped the dough into the various types she wanted for the day. As she continued to work, setting the table for breakfast and checking the various herbs she was drying, the cat observed her from the rocking chair, where it had retired to in order to groom itself and she smiled each time she glanced at it only to find it watching her intently.

“I wonder if you are hungry?” She asked, more of herself than of the cat, and went through to the cold larder where there was an ice storage box to see if there was any left-over ham from the day before. One thing that had quickly become apparent was that Loki did have his Seidr still, but that he seemed to only use it for very low level magic, such as ensuring the cold storage in the pantry stayed that way. Erika had decided not to ask him about it because it did not seem to be an issue for him and she did not want to risk making any references back to his mother, who he had learned a lot of it from. She picked out a few scraps off the ham bone and put them on a plate to bring back through for the cat, but it was nowhere to be seen. Shrugging slightly, Erika put the plate on the table; it would do for breakfast.

 

Glancing at the timepiece, she wondered when Loki was going to get out of bed today and decided that the smell of the breakfast rolls baking would soon wake him up. She had not returned to his room after the first day of being shown around and apart from a few kisses here and there, nothing had happened between them since arriving here. Loki was not putting any pressure on her to become more intimate and she was still getting used to the big change in his personality and the truth was that they were comfortable this way for now. If they were to become closer and eventually share some of what they had back in Asgard, then it would happen in its own time; there was no need to rush into it. She was just about to go upstairs to get dressed before breakfast when a movement from outside caught her attention through the kitchen window. A large bird was flapping around in distress and to her dismay Erika saw that the cat was dragging it about by its wing. The bird was starting to make an awful racket and then the cat swiped at it with a taloned claw and Erika called out.

“No! You naughty thing! Stop it!” She ran to the door and went outside to where the cat was struggling with the size of the bird, which was a huge black raven, and she started to flap her hands around and shout at the cat, trying to get it to let go of its feathered victim.

“Leave it alone!” She cried, and reached out to push at the feline predator, but a loud growl from between its jaws, which were clenched around one of the bird’s legs, gave her pause. It was incredibly nasty and the cat’s green eyes were narrowed in aggression. However, another distressed caw from the raven gave her strength of courage and this time she kicked out with her slippered foot and managed to push the cat onto its side, dislodging its hold on the bird, which instantly struggled away and managed to just about take flight, despite a few missing feathers and a badly damaged leg. The cat scrambled to its feet and streaked after its prey for fifty feet or so, but gave up once it saw that the bird had got away and stopped to watch it disappear into the distance. But Erika was not prepared for what happened next; the cat turned around and came back to her, walking along in a slow purposeful way. Once it had arrived, it sat at her feet and looked up at her only to yowl at her in what could only be described as a disdainful way. Erika was stunned! Was she being told off by a cat? Unable to hold it in, a laugh escaped from her at the absurdity of the situation and she ended up staring incredulously as the cat rose to its feet again and turned its back on her to walk away and duck through a hedge which formed part of the perimeter wall of the farm yard. Shrugging slightly, she returned to the kitchen, where the smell from the oven told her that the bread was ready and just as she took it out to cool Loki arrived as if on cue.

 

“That smells wonderful!” He smiled and came around to help Erika to place the various baked goods out on racks to start to cool off. Once they were done, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her before saying, “Good morning, Erika. May I ask why your hair is awry?” He smoothed a few errant curls as he spoke and Erika felt a small thrill go through her as his fingers went through her hair.

“Oh, I had to beat your cat off a poor bird just now. He was attacking it!”

“My cat?” Asked Loki, “I don’t have a cat.” He pulled a bemused face and went over to the sink to fill a kettle to put on for the morning tea.

“Then whose is he?” She asked, “He makes himself very at home for a cat that does not belong to you. I saw him lying on the chair in the Ingle Nook the day I arrived.”

Loki laughed softly and shook his head, “Erika, I promise you… I do not own a cat. I have goats, horses, sheep…”  
“Surely you have a cat living on a farm? My Grand Parents had many for keeping down the mice.”

“Well then, perhaps there is a cat, but he is not mine and as far as I know, he does not live in this house. I do not even know what this cat looks like!”

“Well, he is black and has bright green eyes, he is quite tall, but slim and graceful… and he is very affectionate – except towards birds!” Erika was getting a little annoyed now; how could Loki have not seen the cat on the chair when she arrived? Was he having her on?

“Sounds like the perfect companion.” Replied Loki and he indicated a chair at the table, “Now, if you would allow me to wait upon you? You have been busy already and have had an eventful morning, and I should like to make you a pleasant breakfast to make your day better!”

 

And so the topic of the strange cat had been dropped.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Until she saw it again.

 

Only the next morning, Erika went out to hang some freshly washed sheets on one of the lines to take advantage of the bright and breezy weather, and was taken aback as she saw the very same cat sitting in the middle of the lawn. As she neared it, it blinked lazily and stood up, only to turn its back once again and stalk off to disappear into the plants bordering the grass. As Erika watched it, her attention was caught by something lying next to where the black feline had been sitting and she walked over to see what it was.

 

It was a bird and it was dead. She set the basket of washing down and looked more closely, surely not… But it was. It was the very same bird that she had tried to rescue the day before – made apparent by the damage on one of its legs from where the cat had hurt it the day before. Standing back up, Erika looked over to where the cat had made its exit from the garden and shook her head in disbelief. Had it purposefully brought the bird back to her to show her that it would do what it wanted despite her attempt at intervention? What a strange creature… and yet Loki claimed to not posses a pet. Sighing in disappointment for the unnecessary death of the bird, Erika gently picked it up in order to go to bury it somewhere, but then she stopped in her tracks as she saw the other leg of the dead avian. Tucked up under the lowest black feather was a ring and Erika pulled it down gently to look at it.

 

It was an identification ring and it had marks on it. She peered at them, but could not identify them. What were they and who owned this bird? Should she tell Loki? Should they go to the town nearby and ask if anyone knew where the bird came from?

 

And just why had the mysterious black cat insisted on picking out this bird to kill it and leave it out for her to find?

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Oooh - who is the cat? Where did the bird come from? Will these questions be answered in future stories?
> 
> Stay tuned ;)  
> Palefire73  
> x


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